


I'm A Weirdo

by jojo_sain



Series: Of Serpents and Scandals [2]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Riverdale (TV 2017), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gangs, If you are allergic to angst, Starcrossed Lovers, This is not a huma-friendly fic, Yes Harry does get Jughead's speech, but hey, we love these angsty teens, you might wanna skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 12:52:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18366410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jojo_sain/pseuds/jojo_sain
Summary: Following Uma's sketchy deal with the Ghoulies, Harry goes to her trailer in search of answers. Will the truth be too much for him to handle?





	I'm A Weirdo

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! This takes place the morning following In Unity, There Is Strength, so if you haven't read that, I highly recommend doing that first. Enjoy!

Under the dark of night, the Wharf was anything but silent. There wasn’t a soul in sight, save for the occasional scavenging rat. The usual clanking of wrenches against busted motorcycle engines had ceased for the day, and yet the trailer park was still filled with noise.

There was the buzz of electric lanterns hanging outside the trailers, illuminating the gravel pathways. There was the rare dull roar of laughter from a late night poker game going on in some older man’s trailer. The summer breeze shook the trees surrounding the park, sending a symphony of rustling leaves and shaking branches into the air.

Through the sounds of routine nature hummed the low rumble of a motorcycle coasting into the Wharf. The rider kept their helmet on in case any of their neighbors decided to peak out their doors and spot the culprit. They all loved their bikes, but they also loved their sleep.

The bike drifted further into the park, the pebbles crunching beneath the wheels until it approached a trailer with a unique brand painted on the side: a skull and crossbones with eight tentacles spiraling out from behind. After the rider turned off their bike and chained it to the side of the trailer, they paused right in front of the graffiti. _What an accurate depiction_ , they thought to themselves half-heartedly.

The rider was none other than Uma Triskelion, and the symbol on her trailer didn’t always turn her stomach in knots the way it did that very moment. The tentacles were actually a token of her mother. The great Snake Charmer Ursula, who could juggle so many negotiations and somehow still come out winning the most. The skull and crossbones were supposed to represent Uma’s capacity to lead, as though she were some kind of ship captain. Looking at the chipped pain now, all Uma could think about was the millions of secrets she was hiding from everyone she cared about, and the people she was letting down because of it.

Uma shook her head to clear her thoughts and pushed her trailer door open. The habitual creaking made her feel more at home than ever. Once the door was closed, she took off her helmet and shed her jacket, throwing both onto an old couch by the door. Already standing in what she considered her kitchen, Uma ambled over to the sink and ran the faucet. She let the water fall for a few seconds before cupping her hands underneath the stream and splashing it into her face. The cold water hit her skin like a wave of temporary relief, but it didn’t help her in the long run. She still had to deal with what she’d done. 

Uma set her hands on the edge of the counter and tried to slow her racing mind. It didn’t help that when she turned her head just slightly, she caught sight of her jacket on the couch out of the corner of her eye. It just happened to land so that the giant snake patch on the back was in full view. Even without the lights on, Uma could clearly see the mark of the Southside Serpents, reminding her of the people, the friends, and the family that she betrayed.

Then, a sweet aroma entered her nostrils, sending an immediate rush of relief through her body. It was incredible, Uma thought, how quickly the smell of maple syrup which lingered on her clothes made her forget the world and feel safe nowadays. It always brought back memories of luscious long hair, deep brown eyes that looked at her with love instead of hatred or suspicion, soft, red lips that never failed to leave their mark…

“Well, well, well…”

Uma jumped at the rough brogue that broke the thick silence in her trailer. She haphazardly smacked the light switch to turn on the lights, and the room lit up to reveal none other than her best friend, Harry Hook, sitting ominously in a torn-up recliner by the window. His head was tilted down, but his eyes shown dangerously under the cover of his black hair. In his hands, he twirled around his prized possession: a silver hook he welded all on his own from pieces of scrap metal. Leave it to Harry to make his presence known in the most extra way possible.

“My God, Harry,” Uma exhaled, letting herself relax but remaining slightly annoyed. “You scared the crap out of me. How the hell did you get in here?”

“I have a key, remember?” Harry answered plainly, keeping his tone low and even. Uma walked around the kitchen counter and into her small living room. She leaned one hand on the cold white surface and rubbed her eyes with the other. When they were younger, she gave him a spare key for the times when his father got a bit too drunk, and he needed a place to sleep without fear. Once Harry got his own trailer, the only times he arrived at her place this late at night was if he needed a little… _nocturnal companionship._

“Look, Harry, if this is a booty call, I’m gonna have to ask you to go and entertain yourself,” she said, her voice indicating just how tired she was. Harry sat back and narrowed his eyes at her, visibly offended, but his mood shift went unnoticed by Uma. She squinted at the digital clock on her microwave. “It’s almost four in the morning. Go home, would’ja?”

“If it’s such an ungodly hour,” Harry speculated menacingly as he stood up and slowly made his way across the room. “What were ye doing out so late, I wonder.”

“I had some business to take care of,” she answered curtly. 

_“Business,”_ Harry repeated snidely, halting his advance a foot in front of her. “Was it anywhere near as treacherous as that stunt you pulled with the Ghoulies tonight?”

“Harry, I don’t wanna talk about this right now,” Uma grumbled, turning to trudge her way into her bedroom only to be yanked back by a quick hand on her shoulder. Uma whipped around faster than Harry could pull her and smacked his hand away, a harsh glare etched into her features. Harry had the exact same expression of suppressed rage on his face.

“No, we need to talk about this _now,”_ he growled, and Uma couldn’t recall a time when she’d seen him this angry with her. “Because I keep replayin’ what happened in my head, and I can’t think of any good reason why ye would ever make a deal with the Ghoulies, especially one as weak as the one ye made tonight.”

“I had no choice, Harry.” Uma raised her voice to counter his. It only made him get louder.

“No choice?!” His face took one of confusion and disbelief. “How about ‘not taking the deal’?”

“I couldn’t do that, Harry!”

“And why not?!” By now they were both shouting. “What aren’t ye tellin’ me, Uma?!”

There was a pause. The tension in the room was palpable, and the silence was only interrupted by Harry’s heavy breathing. He searched Uma’s eyes for some kind of explanation, but all he could see was her defensive anger subsiding into one of indecisiveness, something he rarely ever saw in her. She looked down at her hands, originally clenched at her sides, but they were now fiddling with the edge of her teal flannel. By nature, Harry was unable to stand the sight of her looking so small, so vulnerable, so he spun around and started pacing the room.

_What happened?_ he thought over and over again, one hand on his hip with the hook in his first and the other switching between rubbing his chin and pulling at his hair. _What happened at that damn meeting that made Uma lose the upper hand?_

Uma was demanding fifty percent. Mal refused. Uma exposed that girl Evie as a former Northsider.

Uma was winning, and then Evie said something. Something that made Uma lose her edge.

_ “Are you positive that no one in your ranks has ever been tempted by the Northside?” _

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, all spontaneous fidgets and angered shakes ceasing as his body went still. His gaze moved slowly from his feet to Uma, who had pushed herself against the kitchen counter to try and disappear in the side of the room. Her eyes were trained on some random spot on the floor, and she was biting at her already trimmed-down nails. She was definitely hiding something, and Harry was just starting to put the pieces together. Keeping him at arm's length, the late night outings, Evie’s comment that defanged the otherwise poisonous snake that is his closest friend…

“This is about a Northsider, isn’t it?” Harry concluded, the words alone feeling like bile in his mouth. His hands clenched and unclenched at his side, but he kept the hook in his fingers. Uma dropped her hand away from her teeth, but she kept her eyes on the ground. Her silence was all the confirmation Harry needed. The revealed secret, when he thought she'd never keep a secret from him, felt like a knife to the chest. 

His voice was soft but strained as he whispered, “I don’t believe it…”

“Harry, just listen to me,” Uma pleaded, sensing the hurt in Harry’s voice.

“You’re seeing a _Northsider!”_ Harry exploded, his voice cracking from the intensity. “Do you have any idea what ye’ve done?!”

“God, Harry do you even hear yourself?” Uma countered incredulously. “You’re making it sound like I burned down the trailer park. So what if I’m seeing someone?” She crossed her arms to show nonchalance, but in reality, she knew the weight of her secret. It’s _why_ she kept it a secret.

“Well, besides the fact that Northsiders have put us down since this god-forsaken town was founded,” Harry fumed. “Yer tellin’ me that you took a twenty-five percent deal with our rivals because yer smitten over some guy who could probably buy yer trailer on his daddy’s credit card?!”

“She’s a girl,” Uma quipped.

“Ye think I care about that right now?!” Harry roared, his eyes glistening from his passion. “I couldn’t care less about who or what yer special friend is! What I care about is the fact that we’re headin’ to a new school with you at the head of the snake, and it already feels like you’re abandoning us!”

His words burned in Uma’s mind as if they were hot iron branding her brain more permanently than the spray paint on her trailer. All he was doing was reaffirming all of the awful things she’d already thought of. He was right, of course. She wasn’t thinking of the gang when she made the deal with the Ghoulies. She was thinking of herself. She was thinking of Audrey.

When Uma didn’t respond, Harry added more quietly, “It feels like yer abandoning _me.”_

Uma knit her eyebrows together and took a step forward, reaching out to place a hand on Harry’s arm. Even when he was mad at her, he welcomed her calming touch as the parched welcomed water. 

“I’m not abandoning you, Harry,” Uma assured him, trying to catch his eyes, which were now looking at anything but her. “We’re just going to a new school. I’m still a Serpent. It’s not like I’m _moving_ to the Northside.”

“But yer sneakin’ around and keepin’ secrets,” Harry fretted. “Yer supposed to keep us together, Uma, but after tonight, some of the others are questioning following ye.”

“Well, I’m not the Serpent Queen,” Uma conceded. “Maybe I was never meant to be.”

“But I _want_ ye to be,” Harry confessed, taking her hand with his free one and looking her dead in the eye. “Everyone is expecting me to be Serpent King when me Da kicks the bucket, but I need ye by my side more than anything when that happens.”

“Careful, Hook,” Uma smirked, pulling her hand away. “Don’t go soft on me.”

Harry’s face screwed up in frustration, and he turned his back on her. “Ye still don’t get it,” he grumbled.

“What don’t I get?” Uma demanded.

“We’re going to school in the Northside.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“But do ye understand just how dangerous that is for us?” Harry asked pointedly, his arms folded over his leather-locked chest. “How dangerous it is for me?”

“It’s high school,” Uma emphasized carelessly.

“We’re in a gang!” snapped Harry as though he were scolding a child. “Northsiders hate us because they think we’re all criminals, and they’re kids are the exact same. We’ll be surrounded by people who hate us.”

“Okay, then we lay low once we get there,” Uma suggested like it was just that simple. “Maybe we can blend in with the crowd if we try to fit in.”

“Fit in?” Harry spat like the mere thought of it was ridiculous. He held his arms out as his sides, presenting his whole person from his studded boots to his unruly hair. “Uma, take a good look at me. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m _weird_. I’m a _weirdo._ I don’t fit in, and you know what? I don’t _want_ to fit in!”

He brandished his hook in front of him for Uma to see. “Have ye ever seen me without this stupid hook?” No response, but she knew the answer was no. “That’s _weird_ , Uma.”

He pushed a finger against his cheek and pulled down, opening his eye unnaturally wide. “Have ye ever seen me without eyeliner on? That’s _weird!”_

He ripped his jacket’s zipper down and yanked his arm from inside the sleeve. “And let’s not forget my best trait!” he cheered viciously, a sadistic smile plastered onto his face. Once his arm was out, Uma could clearly see the shoulder tattoo she’d seen so many times. It was a snake coiled around an anchor, and atop the snake’s head was a crown.

“My father is the king of a gang!” Harry shouted in mock achievement, but she could hear the sadness in his voice. “Who else can say that?!”

Uma couldn’t come up with an answer for him. She didn’t know what to say that would quell his rage. He was right yet again. When they go to Auradon Prep, she can easily slip by with few people noticing she’s a Serpent, but Harry sticks out like a sore thumb, even if he does cover the tattoo. 

Harry waited for what felt like forever for her to say something, anything. He wanted Her to say that the Serpents won’t lose each other in this new school. That she’d quit the deal with the Ghoulies and ditch her Northside-piece. That ‘A Serpent Never Betrays His Own.’

When she remained silent, Harry decided he'd made his point and clearly didn't make an impact. He slid his arm back into his jacket and set his jaw. “If this deal ends badly for the Serpents,” he said coolly, looking at her with a detachment that made her blood run cold. “It falls on you, _Snake Charmer.”_

That last line took the breath from Uma’s lungs. Harry left after that, but his presence stuck in her mind, taking the form of his voice reminding her of all the evil she’d done that night. She made a deal with the enemy, betrayed her family, and hid away in a safe haven of a Northside bedroom all in the span of one night.

_Snake Charmer_ , he'd said. Snake Charmer was a name given to former Serpents who exploit the gang for their own benefit. Her mother was a prime example. Uma swore she'd never become like Ursula, but look at her now. Her own best friend just hailed her, _Snake Charmer._

She was supposed to be the head of the snake, but with the first day of high school just beyond the horizon, there were too many axes all too ready to cut her off.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed the fic! Let me know what y'all think of this Riverdale AU. If you want to see more, drop a Riverdale quote in the comments that you think could make our Riverdale!Descendants get into even MORE trouble. As always, have a great evening! -Jojo, who actually got the courage to give a pretty girl her number today, oh my god this is character development :)


End file.
